'Don't blame Apple, it's all O2's fault...'

It’s hard to read O2’s Twitter feed without feeling sympathy for the company’s beleaguered social media frontman. The feed is a patient series of responses to angry questions from O2 customers about the pricing for the new iPhone 3G S, a litany of complaints (in 140 characters or fewer) about having to pay for the new hardware, being locked into contracts which they will have to pay even more cash to buy themselves out of, and additional fury about the cost of ‘tethering’ – using the phone as a way to surf the web from your laptop.

Of course that’s the point of Twitter. The great thing about conversational media is that it turns a faceless corporate entity with nothing on its mind but the bottom line into a person – a nice guy typing fast and trying to do the right thing. This is the essence of great customer service – the helpful bloke at the airport check-in, the shop assistant who goes the extra mile, the rental car clerk who sorts out the problem with your car seat. O2’s tweets are a great way to process all those grumpy customers and drain off some of that anger.

However, what fascinates and amuses me is the way that all of this anger is directed at O2, not at Apple. You see the same phenomenon in the US, where there is anger directed at AT&T for various disappointments around the launch of the new iPhone – yet by and large Apple gets a pass. This is a familiar psychological phenomenon in many contexts. The revolution happens not because the King is bad – the King is anointed by God and beyond reproach – but because he is being misled by the corrupt and evil courtiers. The Prime Minister is not behind these terrible slurs – he is being badly advised by his spin doctors. Sometimes the contortions required to maintain this fiction are hilarious. When the occasional Apple virus emerges, there is a chorus from Apple’s fans blaming Microsoft for creating a context in which such viruses emerge – “even on Macs!”

People displace their anger and hatred onto these minor characters because they can’t deal with the psychological pain of admitting that the authority figure they trusted – the King, the politician, the much-loved brand – is shafting them. Instead we turn away and displace our anger onto targets that won’t require us to change our thinking.

It’s a stunning tribute to Apple’s marketing power that the company, which makes lots of mistakes (as it should – it’s just a company selling products), has polished its brand halo so brightly that it can pretty much get away with anything. I have no more power over Apple’s Jedi mind tricks than anyone else, so I’m in no way feeling superior. I love my iPod, and yet I have been to the Apple store to get it replaced under warranty after hard-drive failures three times. What curious doublethink allows me to watch a product I own collapse on me three times, and yet still bore people at parties with my praise for its virtues, while reflexively slagging off Microsoft’s Zune, a product I will purchase when the fires of hell have cooled to a permafrost chill?

Watch with interest as Apple keeps its head high while its poor mobile partners get a right old slagging, one more way in which they will pay for the privilege of helping Apple redefine their market. The stakes are, however, much higher than the smartphone market. The three things that matter in computing are the hand, the screen, and the cloud. The operating system recedes into the background because we all want connected devices that give us seamless access to our data when we’re mobile or in front of a screen at work or at home, and that link those services back to the cloud. Apple lost the battle for the screen to Microsoft. Google owns the cloud, so now Apple wants to give you a hand…

Because the iPhone isn’t just a phone. I couldn’t help laughing during the Apple press conference during the demo for Zipcar's car-sharing service. Using the iPhone, you will be able to find your nearest Zipcar, then go up to it and unlock the door with a code stored on your iPhone. This is perfect, because of course the iPhone is a key. It’s a key not just to rental cars, but to the future of mobile services, with the form factor and software ecosystem to become the universal front-end to connected devices – which is to say all our devices.

We’re entering a world in which Google and Apple could dominate their part of the computing model as absolutely and completely as Microsoft did theirs. Amusingly, both Google and Apple have begun with relatively cuddly PR compared to Microsoft’s "company-you-love-to-hate" schtick, but as Google has found, that all shifts as your technology starts to feel inexorable, universal, unassailable, and sort of scary. It will be fascinating to see if Apple can keep pulling off its plucky-rebel-underdog vibe when it dominates not just MP3 players and smartphones, but the universal hand-held device we use to control our lives.

Edited by Holden Frith

Comments

I'm happy because I'm at the end of my contract and have been merrily following the slug-out between the Pre, the Nokia N97 and the next iPhone, trying to decide which one to get.

After reading from Apple that they will be keeping the price points for new contracts the same with the 3G S as with the 3G, I decided to go with the new iPhone. But O2 haven't honoured Apple's promise - not even close.

Another thing that annoys me about all this is that O2's long phone contracts actually exceed the average life expectancy for the phone. Apple's batteries have a functional life of no more than 12-16 months, and Apple's capacative touch screen is far less durable (although more sexy) than Nokia's resistive interfaces. There isn't a single iPhone owner I know whose iPhone hasn't completely died within the first 8 months of their contract.

Looking at the comparative Total Costs of Ownership, it's cheaper to get a Nokia N97, which has a longer life expectancy and is capable of a lot more than the iPhone (although it doesn't shout about it like Apple does).

But all in all, Apple have stood there and pledged to their loyal followers that they'll let them get their iPhones the same way as before, only for the actual service providers to completely ignore the pledge. This is just appalling business communication on both parts, which is once again being overlooked purely because Apple's products are shinier than their superior competitors.

Woody

Jun 10th 2009

I don't blame O2. They're just doing what any self-serving, multinational telecom giant would and that's rip a new hole in the wallets of consumers willing to buy the technology they are simply retailing.

I blame Apple for introducing new technology like football strips - a new one every few months. If I buy an iphone 3G (which I did), I'd like to think that it's not going to be thrown down Apple's priority list by the turn of the calendar year.

Tom

Jun 10th 2009

What an amusing story. Not sure I agree that Apple wll win the battle for the hand though... that, considering the poor product choice and penetration of the iphone is just not a battle I would care to call. And smartphones are a long way from the total marketplace. Add to this, the controlling nature of the Apple psyche, will be interesting to see what happens with Android, the new win mobile and most especially the open source Symbian operating systems when phones based on those platforms start to accelerate further ahead of the Apple.

Darran

Jun 10th 2009

@Tom, I think Apple didn't forget about your 3G phone and didn't forget about 2G phone either it is giving you a new Firmware 3.0 with new features, 100+ of them, yeah possibly now it can do what Nokia did 2 years ago and a bit less, but i don't ever remember any Symbian phones getting a major Firmware upgrade like that.

rpv

Jun 10th 2009

@Woody, i don't know what are you talking about, i think you didn't do your search well enough. First of all as mentioned by RPV above, 2G still supported phone, still new firmware supports it. Secondly i have mine since February 2008 and didn't have any problems. thirdly, to replace a batter costs very little (a bit more then Nokia battery on ebay, but almost the same as in Nokia store), plus you can option for AppleCare plan and have warranty for 2 years which includes battery replacement.

rpv

Jun 10th 2009

@rpv Well, if that's the case then I'm pleased as punch. My only concern was that, by December, with the Christmas retail rush, the 3G would have been moved down the pecking order. Admittedly, not forgotten about. Cheers.

Tom

Jun 11th 2009

Hi Michael,

Many thanks for the article.

While I agree that Apple has been able to pull the wool over our collective iSights on many occasions, it seems to me that the big culprit in the UK 3GS launch is O2, not the Big Apple.

In the US, AT&T (for all its failings) offer existing 3G users who want (or in our case, NEED! it's a new Apple product after all) the 3GS the upgrade, as long as they extend their contracts (by another 18 months) and pay a little premium of some sort.

You will find that most of the Twitterists attacking the poor @o2 fella (I'm sure he/she/it means well) would happily agree to the same terms as O2's US counterpart (from the exclusive iPhone carrier standpoint).

Thanks for your time. Need to go to the Apple Store and play with the new MacBook Pro. It has a Firewire 800 port! Isn't that just revolutionary?

What better way to end this message than by saying:

#o2fail

NewJorg

NewJorg

Jun 11th 2009

Sorry, but I don't pity the so called 'hardcore' Apple fans complaining that they can not hop on the 3GS bandwagon so easily. After all, we know that Apple turns out hardware upgrades every year now, so when getting into an 18 or even 24 month contractual commitment with the carrier, I would not expect them to drop the agreement without any 'penalty'. Having said that, I will get my iPhone 3GS on an 18 month contract. I am not kidding myself and know that I will mourn next year when I see what they put into the next version, but I take this step consciously now.